USA > Virginia > Culpeper County > Culpeper County > Genealogical and historical notes on Culpeper County, Virginia > Part 8
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The Germans landed at Tappahannock, and a dispute arose between them and the captain of the ship in which they sailed, about the money for their passage. The captain refused to deliver their effects until his demand was satisfied. Governor Spotswood being present, proposed that if the Germans would settle on his land and remain long enough to instrnet some of his young men in mechanical trades, he would pay the bill. They consented, and hence the settlement at Germanna. In 1714. John Fontaine and JohnClayton of Wil- liamsburg visited Germanna, and described it as follows :- " We went to the German minister's house (they say), and finding nothing to eat lived upon our
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own provisions and lay upen straw. Our beds not being easy, we got up at break of day, and in a hard rain walked abont the town, which is palisaded with stakes stuck in the ground close to each other, and of substance to resist musket-shot. There are but nine families, and nine houses in all in a line; and before every house, twenty feet distant, they have sheds for their hogs and their hens ; so that hog-stys on one side and dwellings on the other make a street. The place paled in is a pentagon, regularly laid out ; and in the centre is a block-house with five sides, answering to the five sides of the great enclosure. There are loop-holes in it, from which you may see all the inside of the enclosure. This is intended for a retreat in case of their not be- ing able to defend the palisades from the Indians. They use the block-house for Divine service. They go to prayers once a day and have two services Sun- day. We went to hear them perform their services, which is done in their own language, which we did not understand, but they seem very devout and sing the psalms very well. This settlement is (1714) thirty miles from any in- habitant. They live very miserably. For want of provisions we were obliged to go. We got from the minister a bit of smoked beef and cabbage, and gave him thirty shillings and took our leave. In less than three hours on our way we saw nineteen deer; and we lodged at Mr. Smith's, at the Falls of the Rap- pahannock."
We must now let the Germans speak for themselves. In the archives of the English society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts is the follow- ing memorial :- " The case of thirty-two Protestant German families settled in Virginia humbly sheweth, that twelve Protestant German families, consist- ing of about fifty persons, arrived April 1714, in Virginia, and were there set- tled near Rappahannock River. That in 1717, twenty Protestant German familes, consist of about four-score persons, came and settled down near their countrymen. And many more Germans and Swiss are likely to come. For the ministries of religion there will be a necessity for a small church and for a minister, who shall catechise and perform Divine offices among them in the German tongue, which is the only language they do yet understand. That there came indeed over with the first twelve German families a minister, nam- ed Henry Haeger-a very sober, honest man, about seventy five years old; but he being likely soon to be past service, we have empowered Mr. J. C. Zollicoff- er, of St. Gall, Switzerland, to go to Europe and obtain subscriptions from pious Christians towards building a church, and bringing over with him a young German minister to assist Mr. Haeger, and to succeed him when he shall die ; to get him ordained in England by the Right Rev. Bishop of Lon- don, and to bring over with him the Liturgy of the Church of England, trans- lated into High Dutch, which they are desirous to use in public worship. But this settlement consisting of only mean (poor) persons, utterly unable to build a church and support an assistant minister, they humbly implore the countenance, &e., of the Bishop of London and other Bishops, and the vener- able society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, that they would take the case under their pious consideration and grant their usual allowance for the support of a minister, and if it may be so subscribe something towards the building of their church, and they shall ever pray that the Lord may re- ward their beneficence here and hereafter." The above petition was sent in 1719.
In the year 1720 Spotsylvania was cut off from Essex, and the Parish of St. George, coterminous with the county, was erected in 1721. Governor Spotswood fixed the seat of justice at Germanna, and the first court, composed of John Taliaferro and others, was holden Ist Angust, 1722. An appropriation was
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made by the General Assembly of £500 for a church, a prison, a pillory and stocks. The Act of Assembly contains this clause, doubtless for the benefit of the Germans: " Because foreign Protestants may not understand English readily, if any such shall entertain a minister of their own, they and their tithables shall be free from taxes for ten years."
By the help of Governor Spotswood a church was built, and Spotsylvania County, named after Spotswood, and St. George's Parish began their career at Germanna, named from the Germans and Queen Anne. Governor Spots- wood, soon after made his home at Germanna. The Rev. Hugh Jones, in his " Present State of Virginia," published about 1724, thus describes Germanna : " Beyond Governor Spotswood's furnace, within view of the yast mountains, he has founded a town called Germanna, from the Germans sent over by Queen Anne, who are now removed up further. Here Spotswood has servants and workmen of most handicraft trades ; and he is building a church, court house, and dwelling-house for himself, and has cleared plantations about it, encouraging people to come and settle in that uninhabited part of the coun- try, lately erected into a county. Beyond this (continues Jones) is seated the colony of the Germans Palatine."
These Germans Palatine were probably the founders of Germantown in Fauquier. However this may be it is certain that the records of Fauquier de- velop the fact that in 1718 Jacob Spilman, John Hoffman, John and Herman Fishback, Peter Hitt, Jacob Holtzclaw, and William Weaver, not finding room at Germanna, moved to Germantown. Only three of these (Hoffman, Fishback and Weaver) having been naturalized, they were sent to enter lands at Germantown. The title was in these three, and they were to make leases for ninety-nine years. The patent was issued in 1724. Copies of the leases are on record. Tillman Weaver, in his last will (1754, Dec. 14th), devises property to Tillman W., to Ann, wife of Jno Kemper, and Mary, wife of Herman Hitt, Eva, wife of Samuel Porter, Jacob, Elizabeth, Catharine, &c. Peter Hitt in his will, 1771, devises to John. Jos .. Herman, Peter, and to Mary, wife of Ja- cob Rector. Peter Hitt married Sarah James, and Jos. Hitt married Mary Coons. Several of these persons have their representatives in Fauquier, Cul- peper and Madison counties.
Colonel Byrd, already quoted, said that in 1732, while on a visit to Colo- nel Spotswood, he saw the ruinous tenements which they, the Germans, had occupied at Germanna, and adds that they had moved higher up to the forks of the Rappannock (the Rapidan) to lands of their own, which must mean what is now the County of Madison, which lies within that fork. From the testimony of these witnesses the Germans must have migrated to Madison before 1724. The tradition is that they were disgusted with the poverty of the soil and the harsh treatment of their overseers in the mines; and resolved to seek their fortunes on the banks of the Robinson River; and from them has descended the very thrifty German element in the population of Madison County. What was the fate of their petition to London for a minister is not known. Had it succeeded we might have had a flourishing German Episco- pal church in Virginia. The Church of England being subject to the State, and the British Ministry being generally governed in their policy to the Church by considerations of political expediency, may not have acted in the premises. However that may have been, the tradition is that our German friends procured subscriptions in Europe for building a Lutheran church, which was erected about 1740, near the junction of White Oak Run and and the Robinson River, and still stands in good condition. It is in the form of a Maltese cross. Money was also raised in Europe to buy a pipe-organ of
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good size, which I believe is still in use.Subscriptions were taken in Sweden too, perhaps for a communion service and other purposes, and the King of Swed- en was said to have been one of the subscribers. General Banks of Madison, we are told, had seen one of these subscription papers. The church was en- dowed, held a glebe, and has money at interest. By the kindness of Governor Kemper I have a copy of the deed from William Carpenter to Michael Cook and Michael Smith, wardens and trustees of the Ger nan church, and people inhabiting the fork of Rappahannock river, in St. Mark's Parish and Coun- ty of Spotsylvania, and their successors, for a glebe for the use of the ininister of the said German people and his successors, a tract of land in the first fork of the Rapidan River, containing one hundred and ninety-three acres, more or less, &c. The deed is dated 1733, and signed, sealed and delivered by William Carpenter in the presence of Jno. Waller, Robert Turner, Ed. Broughton, Jas. King and William Henderson. This Michael Cook was no doubt the same who, with George Woots, was appointed by the vestry in 1729 to count all the tobacco plants from the mouth of the Robinson River up to the Great Moun- tains, including Mark Jones's plantation. The services in this church were originally in German, then once a month in English, and subsequently entire- ly in the English tongue.
Our interest in the history of this church is enhanced by the interchange of courtesies between the Lutherans and Episcopalians. The late Samuel Slaughter of this county remembered to have seen these Lutherans, when they had no minister of their own, came to Buck Run Episcopal church in' Culpeper to receive the holy communion; and the late venerable Mrs. Sarah Lewis, the great-grandmother of Mrs. Dr Robert Lewis, of Culpeper, remem- bered when the Lutheran minister, Mr. Carpenter, used to baptize and per- form other ministerial offices for the Episcopalians of Madison when they had no minister. Many of the first grist-mills on the Robinson River and its tribu- taries were built by German mechanics. The first German settlers are said to have suffered occasionally from the incursions of the Indians. There is a tra- dition that the last person killed by the Indians in this region was murdered near what is now New Hope Church. There are some large Old German Bi- bles extant which have descended as heirlooms from the primitive Germans We are indebted to the venerable John Spotswood of Orange Grove, and to Dr. Andrew Grinnan of Madison, for some of the traditions referred to in the above chapter.
EXTRACT FROM THE DIARY OF CAPTAIN PHILIP SLAUGHTER,
BEGINNING IN 1775 AND CONTINUED TO 1849.
December 4th, 1849 .- I am this day 91 years old. I was born in 1758 at my grandfather's, Major Philip Clayton's, who lived at Catalpa, where the Hon. J. S. Barbour now lives. My father, Col. James Slaughter, then lived on the Rappahannock River where Jones Green now lives. I went to school to John Wigginton, a first-rate. English teacher in the Little Fork. My father sold this farin to Gavin Lawson, and bought another of his brother. Col. Fran- cis Slaughter, near Culpeper C. H., where Samuel Rixey now lives. When we moved to the latter place, I went to write in the clerk's office with my grand- father, Major Clayton, who did the duties of that office for Roger Dixon. the
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clerk, whose home was in the lower country. After Dixon's death, John Jameson, who had served a regular apprenticeship in the clerk's office, was made clerk of the county. After several years' service in the office with Clay- ton and Jameson, my father withdrew me and sent me to a "Grammar School" of which Adam Goodlet (a Scotchman) was master, and which was the first public school in which Latin and Greek were taught in Culpeper County. [Adam Goodlet afterwards taught school in the Taylor Settlement in Or- ange. Col. F. Taylor often speaks of him in his diary, and mentions James Madison, Jr., (the future President) examining Goodlet's scholars.]
After going to school to Goodlet 18 months, the American Revolution be- gan, and I, not yet 17 years old, entered in Capt. John Jameson's company of minute-men. Culpeper, Fauquier, and Orange having agreed to raise a regi- ment, with Lawrence Taliaferro of Orange as Colonel. Edward Stevens of Cul- peper as Lieutenant-Colonel, and Thomas Marshall of Fauquier as Major, the regiment inet in Major Clayton's old field, near Culpeper C. H., to drill, in strong brown linen hunting-shirts, dyed with leaves, and the words "Liberty or Death" worked in large white letters on the breast, bucktails in each hat, and a leather belt about the shoulders with tomahawk and scalping-knife. In a few days an express came from Patrick Henry, commander of the First Vir- ginia Continental Regiment, saying that Dunmore had attempted to carry the military stores from the magazine at Williamsburg to the ships, &c. We marched immediately, and in a few days were in Williamsburg. The people hearing that we came from the backwoods, and seeing our savage-looking equipments, seemed as ninch afraid of us as if we had been Indians. We took pride in demeaning ourselves as patriots and gentlemen, and the people soon treated us with respect and great kindness. Most of us had only fowling-piec- es and squirrel-guns. Dunmore having gone on board of a British man-of-war, half of the minute-men were discharged.
My father, Col. James Slaughter, with Col. Marshall and others, had the honor of being in the first battle (the Great Bridge) fought in Virginia. I was sent home to school. In the spring of 17761 again left school and entered in Col. John Jameson's troop of cavalry for three years. But before we marched I was appointed by the Committee of Safety of Culpeper a Lieutenant in Capt. Gabriel Long's company of riflemen, and we marched to join the army under Washington in New York. In 1777 we were attached to the 11th Continental Regiment, commanded by Danie! Morgan.
Lt. Slaughter was promoted to a captaincy in 1778, and served during the war, being in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, &c. He was one of the sufferers at Valley Forge. His messinates were the two Porterfields, Johnson, and Lt. John (Chief Justice) Marshall. They were reduced sometimes to a single shirt, having to wrap themselves in a blanket when that was washed; not one soldier in five had a blanket. The snow was knee deep all the winter, and stained with the blood from the naked feet of the soldiers. From the body of their shirts the officers had collars and wrist-bands made to appear on parade.
Capt. Slaughter kept a diary of his campaigns, which was lost in the wreck of so many fine libraries in the late war. Among the many anecdotes with which it abounded was the following concerning the late Chief Justice Marshall, at a camp on a night or two before the battle of Brandywine :- "At ten in the night we were aroused from sleep .. Lt. Marshall had raked up some leaves to sleep on; he had pulled off one of his stockings in the night (the on- ly pair of silk stockings in the regiment), and not being able to find it in the dark, he set fire to the leaves, and before he saw it a large hole had been
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burnt in it. He pulled it on so, and away we went," &c.
Capt. Slaughter's diary after the Revolution is preserved to 1849, when he died and was buried in Richmond.
LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
As was said in the text of this history, the Rev. J. Stevenson married Fan- ny, the sister of Lewis Littlepage. This gentleman was born in Hanover county, Va., on 19th December, 1762, and died in Fredericksburg, July 19ttr. 1802. His career was brief, brilliant and unique; and yet there are but few who seem to have heard of the battles, sieges, fortunes he had passed, the many accidents by flood and field, his hair-breadth 'scapes, &c. His name has nearly lapsed from history, or rather he never had a niche in our temple of fame; for Europe and not America, was the theatre on which he played his part. I am indebted to Dr. Payne, the great-grandson of Mr. Stevenson, for an original letter, in which he narrates to his family the story of his life from 1785 to 1798. From the Memoirs of Elkanah Watson I am able to supply some incidents of his life up to the time when the narrative in his own letter begins.
Mr. Watson says :- "During my residence at Nantes I became intimately acquainted with Lewis Littlepage, one of the most remarkable characters of the age. He arrived in Nantes during the winter of 1779-80 on his way to Ma- drid, under the patronage of Mr. Jay, our stern and able minister to the court of Spain. He was then a mere youth, of fine manly figure, with a dark, pene- trating black eye, and a physiognomy peculiar and striking. At that early pe- riod he was regarded as a prodigy of genius and acquirements. When I again heard of him he had separated from Mr. Jay's family, and entered as a volun- teer aide to the Duke de Cuillon at the siege of Minorea. At the attack of Gi- braltar he was on one of the floating batteries, and was blown up, but saved. He participated in a conspicuous manner in the thrilling incidents of that memorable siege. After his catastophe in the floating battery he got a situa- tion on the Spanish Admiral's ship, and in one of the engagements he stood upon the quarter-deck during the battle and sketched the various pontoons of the fleet. On the return of the Spanish fleet to Cadiz he was sent with an of- ficer to Madrid with dispatches, and exhibited to the minister a curious and scientific view of the battle, and was received with great applause and distine- tion at the court of Madrid. In the April following the close of the war I din- ed with him at Dr. Franklin's, in Passy, and saw the sketch. At Paris and Versailles he moved in the first circles and attracted marked attention. In June he made a visit to my bachelor hall in Berkeley Square. London. I never saw him again. He made the tour of Europe and established himself at Warsaw, and became in effect, Prime Minister, went to St. Petersburg as am- bassador from Poland, acquitted himself with distinguished ability, and he came one of the favorites of the Empress Catherine, " &e.
The following letter of Lewis Littlepage to Lewis Holliday takes up the story of his lite where Watson's narrative ends, and completes the account of his eventful career in Europe.
ALTONA, 9TH JANUARY, 1801.
DEAR SIR :-
I have this day received your letter of the 22nd August, 1800 . . . Since my existence is called in question, I give you, for the satisfaction of my family and friends, a short account of all that has happened to me in Europe since 17-5. On the 2nd March 1786, I was sworn into the King of Poland's Cabinet as his first confidential secretary, with the rank of Chamberlain In February. 1787, I was sent to negotiate a treaty with the Empress of Russia at Kiovia. which I effected. The same year I was sent as secret and special envoy to the conrt of France to assist in the negotiations for the grand Quadruple Alliance,
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which failed. In 1788 I was recalled, and sent to Prince Potemkin's army in the Turkish war, where I commanded a division, acting at the same time in a political character. In 1789 I was compelled to leave Poland and travel to It- aly. Shortly after I received orders to repair to Madrid upon a high political mission. in which I completely succeeded. In 1790 I was recalled from Spain and ordered to wait ultimate instructions at Paris. I afterwards received or- ders to repair by the way of Berlin to Warsaw for the revolution of the 3d May 1791. In 1792, 120,000 Russians invaded Poland. I was nominated Aide- de-camp-general to the King, with the rank of Major General. He signed the confederation of Fargowitz, and in April, 1793, sent me once more as his spec- ial envoy to Petersburg to prevent the division of Poland. I was stopped by the Russian Government on the road, and the division took place. In 1794 Kosciusko and Madalinski began another revolution in Poland. On 17th April the garrison and inhabitants of Warsaw rose in arms against the Rus- sians; to save the life of my unfortunate friend and king I was obliged to take part with Poland, and that dreadful battle ended in the slaughter of 10,000 Russians. The Empress Catherine II. never forgave me my conduct upon that occasion. She was more irritated against me by hearing that I had consented to accept as commander-in-chief under the revolutionary government, al- though I was destined to act against Russia. My having assisted in repelling the Russian armies in their attempt to storm Willna, gave also offence. In short, I had gone so far in the revolution that I should have gone much far- ther had I not been defeated with my friend Prince Joseph Poniatoski, the King's nephew, by the late King of Russia on the 26th August, 1794. That event lost me all muy popularity. It was very near getting me hanged, for I was regarded as the acting person, although upon my honor, Prince Poniatos- ki acted that day against my advice. The King of Russia attacked ns with about three times our force, both in men and artillery, and Kosciusko afford- ed us no support until we were beaten beyond redemption, although neither his left or centre were engaged the whole day otherwise than in cannonading.
After the battle of 26th August I took no further part in military affairs nntil the storming of Prague, which cost the lives of 22.000 Polanders. On the 7th Jannary, 1798, the King of Poland was taken from Warsaw by the Russians to be conveyed to Grodno. I was separated from him by express orders of the Empress, and it was hinted to be that nothing less than my former services in the Turkish war could have saved me from sharing the fate of the other chiefs of the revolution of 1794. After the departure of the King I set out for Vienna, but was immediately ordered to leave that metropolis, which produced a pub- lic altercation between me and the Austrian ministry, but which ended to my satisfaction, as Russia came forward and did me justice. The King of Prussia, Frederick William II., afterwards allowed me to return to Warsaw, then un- der his dominion, where I remained nutil the death of the Empress Catherine II. I was then invited to go to Petersburg with the King of Poland, but re- fused unless reparation was made to me for the treatment I had recently ex- perienced. The Emperor said that "all that regarded his mother; as he had given no offence, he should make no reparation." I perhaps might have gone at last to Russia, but was prevented by the sudden death of my friend, my master, my more than father. Stanislaus Augustus, King of Poland, who ex- pired at Petersburg 12th Feb'y., 1798. After that melancholy event a long correspondence took place between the Emperor of Russia and myself, which ended in his paying me in a very noble manner the sum assigned me by the King of Poland as a reward of my long and dangerons services.
I arrived in Hamburg in October last. My intention was to go either to France,or England, but I found myself strangely embroiled with both these governments. I have settled matters in France, but not yet in England. The ministers there persist in believing me to be sent upon a secret envoy from the Emperior of Russia, who is now at variance with England. God knows I am sick of European politics. I intended to have spent the winter in Hamburg. bnt was driven from that siuk of iniquity by a most atrocious plot against my life and fortune. The latter is in safety, and should I perish even here under the hospitable government of Denmark, I shall leave nine or ten thousand pounds sterling so disposed of that my assassins cannot prevent its coming to my family. That sum is all I have saved from the wreck of my fortunes in Poland. In the spring I shall proceed to America, either by the way of France or directly from hence, provided I escape the daggers and poison with which I am threatened here.
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My duty and affection to my mother, and kindest remembrance to all re- lations and friends.
Ever yours, my dear Sir. LEWIS LITTLEPAGE.
LEWIS HOLLIDAY.
If the adventurous career of Lewis Littlepage needed confirmation, inci- dental proof and illustration of it will be found in the personal souvenirs de- vised by him to Waller Holladay and inherited by Col. Alexander Holladay, by whom they were kindly shown to the author:
1. The original patent conferring the position of Chamberlain upon Lew- is Littlepage upon his entrance into the Polish Cabinet, 1787, signed by the King.
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